A coffee shop in a peaceful public park?

Shahabuddin Park in Gulshan is perhaps the first park in the world, to my knowledge, to have a coffee shop! An outlet of North End Coffee Roasters was inaugurated in the park on Thursday, housed in premises built with public money. As it is, we are unmatched in our shameless hyperbole and exaggeration, just as we top the list of unlivable and polluted cities. As a residential student of Dhaka University's Mohsin Hall, I used to be under the belief that Mohsin Hall was the largest student hall in Asia. Later I learnt that this was not true. The exaggerations concerning Padma Bridge, Metro Rail and so on are simply façades to conceal the inflated construction costs and inordinate implementation delays. But opening a coffee shop in a public park is no empty claim to fame. This is rude reality.

Private property can be used for any purpose, in keeping with the law, and entrance can be restricted. But public property, like parks, can only be used for a specific purpose and entrance must be open to all. The law maintains that when a plot of land is acquired in public interests and given to a certain organisation, the government can reclaim the land if it is not utilised for the purpose intended.

The logic being used to commercialise the park is that the park's maintenance costs have gone up. And so, to ensure that the park facilities remain intact, this commercialisation has been taken up to subsidise the government's inadequate allocation. This is no justification. If such logic is used, then someone can claim that a  five-star hotel, casino and golf course be set up on the premises of Bangabhaban, the symbol of the people's aspirations, so as to meet the government's budget deficit. Under no circumstances can a public facility like a park be used for commercial purposes. Abroad, wealthy persons contribute funds for installations in parks, upon which the benefactor's name, or name of their beloved ones, appear on a plaque. That is why the names of the benefactors often appear on park benches there.

Firstly, it limits the entry of the public to a section of the park. A cup of coffee at the North End coffee shop costs from Tk 165 to Tk 500. The price of the other items is similar. So it is obvious that this coffee shop is out of bounds for members of the general public. Secondly, the coffee shop is not in keeping with the objective of the park. The park is to burn calories, not to consume calories.

In the North Gulshan Lake Park, icddr'b has occupied a large stretch of land with its centre to take blood and other samples for diagnostic tests. There was already shops there selling tea, ice cream, soft drinks and snacks. There is also a park-based club building there. Many feel that these are not lawful.

It is not that all the parks in Gulshan are being commercialised. There are good precedents too. A school for deprived children is being run by the Gulshan Youth Club at Shaheed Tajuddin Park. After school, the children play on the swings, slides and climbing frames. Then they are given snacks like bread and bananas, or singaras, rice cakes, whatever may be the menu of the day. One day I saw the club president's son who was on holiday from his studies in Canada, teaching the children, playing with them and eating with them too. Yet a part of this park had originally been commercial, occupied by the Wonderland amusement park. There was a food shop there too. All of that is in the past. A happy change.

So will the park visitors not be able to have  cup of coffee? Will they not be able to have their blood tested for medical diagnosis? Of course they can. But outside of the park. The initiators of Smart Bangladesh, who are widely experienced travellers, will well know that abroad, the ice cream vans, mobile coffee outlets, soda vendors and other food stalls are set up by the roads outside of the park. They will also have seen how samples to test for Covid-19 were collected in vans. Blood tests and other samples can be collected in these air-conditioned vans. Similar vans can be used to collect samples from the parks in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara. This is the way of Smart Bangladesh. Commercial establishments in a public park is a step in the opposite direction.

The trend of civilians' protest, outside of politics, is rather feeble in our country. There is the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) for commodity prices, there is Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (BAPA) for the environment, but they are not adequately established. These organisations have not been institutionalised, unlike the business bodies like FBCCI, BGMEA and BAB. The government agencies and local government bodies are under no compulsion to heed the words and recommendations of CAB or BAPA regarding prices or the environment.

Organisations like BAPA should mobilise active resistance against such occupation and commercialisation of parks. In any other country, there would be picketing and court cases against the misuse of the park. Unfortunately, in our country democracy means determining which party will be given the scope to loot and plunder for the next five years. But the premise of actual democracy is people's participation in the social decision-making process, a reflection of people's aspirations in running the country.

Let legal action be taken against the unlawful decision for a coffee shop to be established in Shahabuddin Park and the icddr,b sample collection centre in the Lake Park. North End Coffee Roasters will move away from their short-sighted plan. Whatever the case may be, misuse of the public park must not be allowed. The park's environment must be protected and it must remain safe for children. The sample collection centre at Lake Park can be made into a general library.

We further hope that the court takes suo moto action against the commercialisation and unlawful occupation of parks and issues specific guidelines for the public use of the parks. If this cannot be done, then commercial structures will spring up in all parks and the purpose of the parks will be lost.

Let our parks be free of the concrete chaos. Let the parks be filled with trees, grass, flowers and butterflies. We want lively leafy parks, resounding with the sweet sound of birds, children, the old and the young.

* Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan is an economist and former secretary